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Catholic U. hosts national human trafficking conference

Christine Stoddard | Catholic Herald

Alex Olivares, coordinator of the Florida Gulf Coast University Regional Human Trafficking Resource Center and a counselor at the Catholic Charities Diocese of Venice, Fla. Trafficking program, speaks about collaborating with law enforcement and other community resources to support human trafficking victims and survivors.

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“We can all sprinkle pixie dust and make Congress useful – or
somewhat useful – but that means nothing without a paradigm
shift,” said Mary Leary, a law professor at Catholic
University in Washington during the morning plenary at the
2015 Conference on Human Trafficking, “Answering Pope
Francis’ Call: An American Catholic Response to Modern-day
Slavery.”

It was the second day of the July 9-10 national conference at
Catholic U., with 300 participants that included social
workers, clergy, parish staff, lawyers and university
professors. Conference sponsors included the USCCB, Catholic
Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, Catholic
Charities USA and Catholic U.’s National Catholic School of
Social Service.

According to Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Charities
agencies that responded to a survey reported serving 239
human trafficking victims in the past 12 months. Victims
included U.S. citizens, foreign nationals, men, women, adults
and children.

Leary kicked off the morning with the presentation,
“Advocating for Change in Legislative Policy,” in which she
summarized the history of anti-human trafficking legislation.

She cited the Palermo protocols drafted by the United Nations
for their comprehensive definition of human trafficking,
which includes this excerpt:

“Trafficking in persons shall mean the recruitment,
transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by
means of the threat or use of force or other forms of
coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse
of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving
or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent
of a person having control over another person, for the
purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a
minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or
other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or
services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude
or the removal of organs.”

Leary pointed out that while all 50 U.S. states now have an
explicit law against human trafficking, Polaris, a national
anti-slavery organization, gave 21 of those states low
ratings on their laws’ effectiveness.

A talk from Dana Davenport, associate director for social
concerns at the Maryland Catholic Conference, focused on how
to advocate for legislative change.

Davenport urged the audience to go to their state capital,
attend lobby days and meet with legislators to make the
“Catholic footprint” known.

“Not everyone knows the work Catholic churches and schools
do,” said Davenport.

She added that legislators pay attention to large groups of
people.

Alex Olivares, coordinator of the Florida Gulf Coast
University Regional Human Trafficking Resource Center and a
counselor at the Catholic Charities Diocese of Venice, Fla.,
Trafficking program co-presented “Community Collaboration and
Building Relationships with Regional Sources to Support a
Survivor through the Process” with Sister Terry Shields,
co-founder and president of Dawn’s Place in Philadelphia.

“Human trafficking is the human rights issue of the 21st
century,” Olivares said, “Don’t be confused – human
trafficking is slavery.”

Olivares emphasized that Catholic organizations cannot work
in isolation. Strategic partnerships can help secure
necessary temporary shelter, long-term housing, attorneys,
mental health care, medical care, dental care and substance
abuse testing for human trafficking victims and survivors.

He stressed the importance of talking to the local police
force and increasing their awareness of human trafficking.

“Without law enforcement, there is no legislation,” he said.

Olivares added that not every police force will recognize
human trafficking as a local issue. According to Olivares,
one sheriff in a town near his home of Fort Meyers, Fla. has
repeatedly denied the presence of human trafficking, despite
multiple arrests in the region.

“I haven’t made many friends because I advocate for clients
and I advocate for them forcefully,” he said.

He recommended that audience members who work with victims
and survivors of human trafficking do the same.

Sister Terry centered her portion of the presentation on the
work done at Dawn’s Place, a 10-bed shelter and therapeutic
program at an undisclosed location in the Philadelphia area.

She advised the audience not to think of victims of sex
trafficking “as prostitutes, but as people who’ve been
prostituted.”

Other talks focused on identifying victims, international
trends in human trafficking and the legal extent to which
clergy and parish staff can get involved.

Tina Frundt, a survivor of sex trafficking and founder of
Courtney’s House in Washington, and Gerardo
Reyes-Chávez, also a survivor of labor trafficking and
now a leader of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Campaign
for Fair Food, delivered the keynote address.

The total of nearly 20 speakers included Jeffrey Cook,
assistant United States attorney and coordinator of the
Washington, D.C. Human Trafficking Task Force; Father Eusebio
Elizondo, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle and
chairman the USCCB Committee on Migration; and Bill O’Keefe,
Vice President for Government Relations and Advocacy,
Catholic Relief Services.

“Human trafficking is a direct affront to the sanctity of
life and dignity of the human person. The conference calls
our attention to our obligation as a church to directly
redress this horrible human tragedy,” said William Rainford,
dean of Catholic U.’s National Catholic School of Social
Service.

Find out more

To learn more about the conference, visit
ncsss.cua.edu/trafficking/index.cfm. To join the conversation
about human trafficking on social media, search #stopslavery
on Twitter and Facebook.

Stoddard can be reached at [email protected].

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